This article outlines preventative measures that can be undertaken by the end users at schools to avoid inconsistencies and operational issues in the platform short term and long term. It’s important that areas of Compass are checked periodically to ensure Compass is up to date for your school.

Permissions

You will require the Configure permission to be able to access the 'Administration Tools' menu (under the cog icon).

For information on staff permissions in Compass, please refer to the 'Permissions' article from our Knowledge Base. 

Compasslink

The status of Compasslink can be monitored from your Compass portal by going to 'Administration Tools' (under the cog icon) and clicking 'Client Manager'.
The client manager uses coloured dots to visually represent the connection back to Compass. You can also go to: ‘localhost/compasslink’ on the web browser of the server running Compasslink for more information.

Authentication
(Disregard if you are using SAML/Single Sign-on)

When using your local school network credentials to log in to Compass (such as your teacher number), Compasslink must be online to carry these requests between your network and Compass. With this in mind, it’s important that the auth instance of Compass is online. You can check the status of your auth instance of Compasslink in the client manager. The Compasslink client with the (A) is your auth instance.

     


SIS Synchronisation

If you use Compass in conjunction with another SIS such as CASES21 or SAS2000, Compasslink imports your student, staff and parent data overnight to ensure all the data in the platform is up to date. This is important for new and leaving students and parents contact details. You can manually push through a SIS sync by clicking the blue circular arrows on your Compasslink client. 

You can check the import jobs page in Compass (administration tools → Import jobs) after your sync to see if it’s successful, it’s good to check this every morning or nominate an email to support that will receive an error summary each morning if one occurs.

Timetable Import

Secondary Schools/External Timetable Package

Compass support direct LISS syncs from Edval, Timetabler V9 and syncs via the data sync tool from FirstClass, Timetabler 8/8.1, Timechart and other CSV based packages. After each timetable sync, you should quickly check the portal to see if the changes have been imported successfully by checking a schedule as a sample with a change and monitoring the import jobs page (administration tools → Import jobs) for any errors such as the error below. See Helpful tips to see how to extract the error details.

Similar to the SIS sync, you can nominate an email to be sent to a staff member when a timetable import fails. To do this please contact support.

     

Checklist for schools using an external timetabling package:
   


Primary Schools/Compass Schedule Builder 

The Schedule Builder allows for the building of simple, core level timetables within Compass. This module is most useful for Primary Schools and small schools where timetabling may have previously been done on a simple document or spreadsheet. 

Schedule builder automatically runs the enrolment sync after the SIS import from Compasslink. This is so as you change students form/class groups, as you get new students or as they leave, schedule builder will adjust your enrolments. It’s important to note, as you change the teachers or make adjustments to the sessions in the schedule builder template, you click “save and generate”. You can see the status of the schedule builder import in the import jobs screen.

Similar to the secondary timetable above, you can nominate an email to be sent to a staff member when a schedule builder import fails. To do this please contact support.

Checklist for schools using Schedule Builder:
     

Helpful Tips

• School Timetabler / Daily Org - Bookmark the import jobs page in Compass so you can see the status of your imports quickly (administration tools → Import jobs)
• School technician - Bookmark the client manager page to check the Compasslink client status. You can also have a shortcut to the server IP/localhost if you are on the same network to see the service status
• If Compasslink is offline, you should try restarting the service on the server. If Compasslink cannot be restored or drops out again shortly after please contact support for diagnosis.
• Ensure ‘*.compass.education’, ‘*jdlf.com.au’ and ‘*compass.edu.au’ are whitelisted on your proxy for the best Compass experience.
• To see the details of an error on the import jobs page click the dash to the right of the error    
  

Support

If you are ever unsure please contact Support via email to support@compass.edu.au or on LiveChat, and our helpful support staff will be able to assist with your query.